In the latest interception of drug peddling in Cuttack-Bhubaneswar twin cities, the Commissionerate Police on Monday seized 1.159 grams of brown sugar worth over Rs 1.10 crore by nabbing six suspected drug peddlers.

This is the second-largest interception of brown sugar in the twin cities. The Special Task Force (STF) wing of the crime branch during June last year had seized nearly five kilograms of brown sugar valued at around Rs five crore in the international drug market from near Rasulgarh chowk in Bhubaneswar and that was the biggest ever drug seizure in the State.

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“Acting on a tipoff, a special squad of the commissionerate police conducted a raid near RNT College in Lalbag police station area in Cuttack city and intercepted the accused persons with the drug haul”, Police Commissioner Soumendra Priyadarshi told reporters on Monday.

The arrested drug peddlers were natives of the Jagatsinghpur, Puri, and Balasore districts. They had a history of illegal trading in banned narcotic substances, he said.

On interrogation, the accused persons revealed that they procured the banned substances from Balasore district to smuggle it in Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Khordha, Jagatsinghpur, and Puri.

The Cuttack urban police have made a seizure of 4.280 kilograms of brown sugar, 677 kilograms of cannabis in 2021 and arrested 39 drug peddlers, he said.

The commissionerate police have resolved to put to end the growing drug menace in the twin cities and accordingly intensified crackdown on drug peddlers, he added.

The banned substances are making their way to Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, the major urban centres of the State, from Balasore district with the coastal district on the border of Bengal, fast emerging as the gateway to drug peddling networks in the State.

The source point of the brown sugar trade in the State owes its origin to Murshidabad. The organized rackets of drug peddlers based in Balasore have spread their network to other parts of the State including Cuttack, Bhubaneswar besides Puri pilgrim town, added the commissionerate police officials.